The Byzantine Empire was not able to hold back the Slavs neither by applying military force, nor by diplomatic means, much less by attracting select representatives of theirs to the army or to the administration. The local Thracian population gradually got assimilated in the immense Slavic mass. However, in their struggle against the powerful Byzantine Empire the Slavs stood in constant need of an ally. And in the second half of the 7lh century the desired allyç
The Roman town Nicopolis ad Istrurn was built by the Emperor Trajan in 107 to commemorate his victory over the Dacians with whom he fought for almost seven appeared, came from the north…
Originally Turkic-speaking tribes from the steppes of Central Asia or, according to other authors, from the Altaic ethnic community of Western Siberia, the Proto-Bulgarians became part of the general wave of the Hun incursion and resettled in the lands between the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Azov to the north of Caucasus. The name “Bulgarians” was used for the first time by a Roman historian in 354. Moving west with the Huns the Proto-Bulgarians finally reached the Byzantine provinces on the Balkans. To protect his capital in the beginning of the 6th century the Byzantine emperor ordered the construction of a wall between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmora. Facing this new enemy Constantinople took steps in disuniting and opposing to each other the Proto-Bulgarian tribes and finally they submitted to the Avar khaganate. Some tribes dispersed in Central Europe and Northern Italy, others stayed in the steppes by the Sea of Azov Private Tours Balkan.
Proto-Bulgarian khan Kubrat
In 632 the Proto-Bulgarian khan Kubrat succeeded to overthrow the power of the khaganate and to create a powerful military and tribal union which was defined by the Byzantine historians as “Old Great Bulgaria”. An alumnus of Constantinople himself khan Kubrat led a very wise policy with the Empire and was honoured with a rank of a patrician from the emperor. He established as a capital of his state the ancient city of Fanagoria on the Taman Peninsula and this state lasted for about three decades. However, his five sons could not cope with the intertribal dissentions and soon after their father’s death the powerful Khazar Khaganate subjugated the tribes.
The elder son, Batbayan, stayed as head of the so called “black Bulgarians” under Khazar dominion. The second son, Kotrag, led his people to the middle reaches of the river Volga to found a state called the “Volga-and-Kama Bulgaria”. The fourth son, Kuber, made for Panonia and finally settled down in Macedonia. And the fifth son, Altzek, after taking a long march stopped in Italy.
Ottoman in Bulgaria 